Swimming Lessons
by Mikolaj
Summary: A summer day with Julian Keller and his brother.  Could be considered slightly AU, plenty of liberties taken.


**Author's Notes:**

Julian Keller has a brother, James Keller, who was mentioned in one issue ever, in the New X-Men: Hellions mini. In the Age of X Communique for Hellion, it is said that James is an older brother. While he's never really mentioned in the comics aside from in those two instances, and he doesn't ever seem to hold any major influence over Julian's life, I have taken a few liberties with his character.

It would not be completely farfetched for James Keller to be detached from his brother, nor would it be out of the question for him to be a mutant with a similar power; look at the Summers and Frost families. So I have written James as a telekinetic mutant, one that will eventually be a victim of M-Day, and one who is determined to keep his mutation a secret.

In this story and any that I use him in, James is five years older than Julian. If James is thirteen here, Julian is eight, and so on.

Please enjoy.

* * *

><p>Summer vacation was probably the best time of year for James Keller. He didn't have the pressures of school, didn't have to worry about soccer (except for soccer camp, but that didn't start until August), and, even better, his parents had entrusted him to stay at the house alone, save for the staff, while they went off to go out on their yacht and while Julian was at a summer camp for the week, under the guidance of his nanny, who was a camp counselor there as well.<p>

James sank back in his chair by the pool, pulled his sunglasses down over his eyes, turned the radio on, and relaxed. This was going to be the best week of summer vacation, and he was very much determined to enjoy it. He had his music, the warm sun, a cold Coke... wait. He frowned, flicked up his sunglasses, and saw that he'd forgotten to grab his drink. From where he sat, he could see into the kitchen, and saw that none of the staff was there yet—why would they be? They were only supposed to come to make sure that he had a healthy dinner, and even then his father had slipped him money for pizza behind his mother's back. The kind catering couple—the Cheungs, he thought they were called—weren't due to arrive for hours now. No one would see, right...?

James looked around. No garden staff, no pool boy, not even any neighbors, with the house on the right being vacant and the occupants of the house on the left having gone to China for the summer to save pandas or something ridiculous like that. They'd even taken their horrible dog.

After making one hundred and ten percent sure that the coast was clear, James did the one thing that he had promised himself he wouldn't do. He thought about the door to the kitchen, the wood with a glass panel inserted into it and a curved brass handle. He thought about turning the handle and pulling the door open. And as he thought about doing those things, they actually happened.

He extended his thoughts all the way into the kitchen, felt the smooth, stainless steel handle of the fridge in his mind and gave it a pull, and then grabbed the drink out of its cardboard container. James pulled the drink over to himself in a cool blue light and closed both doors. No evidence left behind whatsoever. He took the drink in his hand, opened it up, and went to take a drink of his prize...

"Whatcha doin'?"

James jumped and spun around to see Julian there at the gate to the pool area. Had he been there the whole time? Had he seen his telekinetic act? Did he know that he was a mutant? He couldn't know!

"Just relax- wait, Julian, what are you doing home? I thought you were at camp?" James watched his little brother, who walked over to the side of the pool and peered into the pristine blue water.

"Camp closed down early because a bunch of kids got sick or something." Julian informed him. He didn't seem to be acting like he'd seen anything out of the ordinary... James relaxed significantly and decided to just act like it never happened. Like he'd brought the drink out with him in the first place.

"Oh. At least you didn't get sick and bring it home. I don't want to get sick." He huffed, taking the gulp of Coke and then setting it beside him. "Just go play video games inside or so-"

"Will you teach me how to swim?" His little brother blurted out at him suddenly. "I was supposed to learn how at camp but since I'm not at camp anymore, I want you to teach me."

James suddenly had the distinct feeling that there wasn't any illness at any camp at all, and that Julian was very crafty when it came to getting his way.

"No." James answered him immediately. "I'm not going to teach you how. You don't need to learn how to swim. It's not anything vital."

"But what if I go surfing someday, and I fall off of my board and I drown and die because I didn't know how to swim?"

"No self-respecting surf instructor would let you near a surfboard if you didn't know how to swim first."

"See? See?" Julian flailed his arms like James was just proving his point. "So you have to teach me!"

"No." James repeated. Perhaps if he was persistent enough, Julian would grow bored and leave him alone to go play those video games inside. However, Julian was learning his brother's strategies, and so he changed tactics, determined not to be ignored.

"I bet you're just saying no because you don't know how." He said, and that irked James immediately for no good reason. He pulled his sunglasses off, swung his legs over the edge of the lounge, and looked at Julian like he had grown six extra heads.

"You don't know what you're talking about. Of course I know how to swim." he scowled.

"Then /teach/. /Me/." Julian insisted. James was quite ready to throw Julian into the deep end of the pool—head first—to get him to shut up. Julian /was/ very crafty when it came to getting his way. He knew just the right buttons to push on his brother, and he had most certainly pushed them. James stood up and dove into the pool, parting the water cleanly with his arms as he propelled his way to the bottom. Their family had only the best; the pool was very large and very deep at its furthest point. He could feel his lungs beginning to strain as he made his way back up to break the surface.

When he came back up, he shook his hair out of his eyes and made his way over to the shallower end of the pool. He scowled at the triumphant smirk on Julian's face.

"Use the ladder, smartass." James waited for his brother to tug off his shirt and run over to the plastic ladder, too excited to threaten to tell on him for cursing. Julian was very cautious when he got into the water, and even though it was only four feet deep, he had a bit of a hard time keeping his mouth and nose above the water. Eventually, James grabbed Julian's sides and held him up above the water until he was able to tread it on his own, without his head dipping under every few seconds.

It wasn't as horrible as James had anticipated, spending time in the pool with Julian. He'd been expecting a quiet afternoon with maybe a few laps in the pool instead of time on a treadmill, but he guessed he was getting just as much exercise, if not more, teaching Julian the different strokes and avoiding getting splashed. By the end of the day, the Cheungs had been called and canceled, the pizzas ordered, delivered, and consumed, and the brothers had retreated inside to lay out on the couch in the media room to watch whatever movie Julian had firmly decided on.

"Thanks for teaching me how to swim, James." Julian yawned halfway through the movie. James ruffled his brother's still wet hair and smiled.

"Any time, little brother."

James stayed still when Julian fell asleep on him, exhausted from the day of hard play. After making sure that he was out cold, he used that thing again, his telekinesis, to pull a blanket from the hall closet over the two of them, and to turn off the projector and the light.


End file.
